Online Pornography and Sexual Practice: Explaining the Uses of Sexually Explicit Material Within and Outside Committed Relationships

• In Event: Computer-Mediated Communication

Abstract

The cliché notion of pornography consumption is that it primarily serves as a vehicle for masturbation and thus as a substitute for sexual intercourse. It is hence expected that the frequency of watching pornography declines when people start a committed relationship. We investigate how using pornography is related to masturbatory practice as well as to couples’ sexual interaction to shed light on how exactly relationship status influences the frequency of pornography consumption. The results show that the frequency of masturbation predicts that of watching pornographic material. However, masturbation does not decline among women in committed relationships and it only slightly declines among men. A committed relationship marked by intense sexual interaction can even contribute to increasing the frequency of masturbation and hence the consumption of pornographic material. We have to broaden our understanding of masturbation as autonomous sexual practice to understand the role pornography plays inside and outside committed relationships.

Authors

• Richard Lemke, U of Mainz

• Sönke Sascha Matschurek, U of Mainz

• Marc Ziegele, U of Mainz

• Mathias Weber, U Mainz